A Match into Water
by Randaacx
Summary: Miyuki Himura; a young kunoichi a little too obsessed with her hair. She wishes to be a strong kunoichi in order to protect the ones closest to her. Valuing her love ones over herself, Miyuki holds a secret that wasn't even known to herself. During and after the Chuunin Exams Miyuki must make life changing decisions that will not only affect her but the ones closest to her.
1. Meeting Sand Ninjas

**I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my original characters.**

**Critiques are welcomed. Actually, please offer advice. I love advice and I will edit and change anything that seems like it messes with Kishimoto's original work. If my characters seem to Mary Sue like, please tell me and I will edit what was Mary Sue-ish about them.**

**I also want to apologize in advance for any OOC-ness in this story.**

**Besides that, I hope you enjoy this c:**

* * *

The hot sun beams down on the pale shoulders of the black haired girl. Sweat beams off her skin as she fans herself with her hand. A scowl decorated her face as she walks at a leisurely pace behind her teammates. They had been training the majority of the day and their sensei, Kaori, finally gave them permission to relax for the ray of the day. The three genin didn't protest this decision. They were eager to spend the rest of the day doing what they wanted besides getting injured during training.

"Miyuki!" The black haired girl's teammate calls over his shoulder to gain her attention.

Miyuki quickens her pace so she was walking in between her two teammates. "What?" She questions, pulling out a small hair brush from her hip pouch and pulling her hair out of her ponytail to brush it.

"Where do you wanna go?" The black haired boy crossings arms behind his head as he asks the questions.

Miyuki makes a tsking sound as she brushes out her hair. "Why do have to pick? You guys know I hate being the one to decide what we do," she wines.

A hand wraps around Miyuki's brush and pulls it out of her hand. Miyuki opens her mouth to protest but stops as an arm wraps around her shoulder. "Come on, Beauty Queen, help us think of something. We can't just walk around aimlessly," the other female of the group remarks, a playful smile etches across her face.

"Don't take my brush, Akari." Miyuki snatches the brush away from her teammate. Placing her hand on her chin, she puts a thinking face on as she ponders over what her team could do. "We can go to the steakhouse. I'm starving," she concludes as she pulls her hair back up.

Akari claps her hands together in excitement. Ever since Miyuki had known Akari, she knew steak was her favorite food. The young white eyed girl wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty when came to food. On the contrary, she made a complete mess, especially when our came to food made with barbecue. This lack of care always amazed Miyuki when it came to Akari. After all, one would think a member of the Hyuuga clan would care more about social appearances. Though that's one of the things she's loved about her teammate. She could've been stuck up, like another Hyuuga from their class, yet she wasn't.

Miyuki's other teammate stuffs his hands in his pants pockets with a huff. His brown eyes followed Akari as she ran in the direction of the steakhouse. "I'm not paying for her food," he comments lazily as he follows Akari in no particular hurry.

Falling into to step with him, Miyuki sighs, "I guess that means I'm paying?"

Whenever the team decided to go to eat without their sensei, they rotated on who would pay for the food that day. Unfortunately it was Miyuki's day to pay and she had chosen one of the most expensive places in the village.

"It's your day, not mine." Her teammate shrugs before stretching his arms out.

Miyuki purses her lips as she grabs into his shirt. "Oh come on, Daiki. You know how much she can eat." Miyuki bats her eyelashes at him causing a light blush to appear across his cheeks. Unfortunately for Daiki, when it came to girls he was utterly defenseless. When a girl batted her eyes at him, he couldn't help but do what they wanted. Miyuki learned this after a few months of knowing Daiki and ever since they were little, she used it to her advantage.

Face growing redder, Daiki turns his face away from Miyuki and scratches his cheek. "I'll buy ours and you can buy Akari's," he decides.

Miyuki smiles in victory. "Thank you, Dai," she says then breaks off in a jog to catch up with Akari, leaving Daiki behind who clearly had no intention of quickening his pace. When she catches up to the pixie haired Hyuuga, Miyuki grabs her arm and twirls Akari around. This causes the Hyuuga to let out an ugly snort which she attempts to cover up with a fit of laughter.

Once they stop spinning, the two kunoichi's lace their arms together and walk toward the steakhouse that was just a few feet away from them. "What was that all about?" Akari asks after she calms down her laughter.

"I'm just excited! The chuunin exams are just in a couple of days," Miyuki squeals in delight as they walk into the steakhouse. The haired girl wasn't sure if it was okay to be so excited over the exams. After their sensei had explained to them the dangers of the exams, Daiki and Akari weren't too enthusiastic about them. It wasn't like they doubted their abilities, it was more like they were worried about the ninjas from other villages. From the few missions they had been on, they had ran into other ninjas occasionally. The first time nearly ended with the three genin being killed. If it wasn't for Kaori, they would've been dead. After that mission, they were more cautious when it came to running into other ninjas, especially ones from villages that were enemies of the Leaf. After all, their village's enemies were more hostile toward them than the ones that weren't. While they were afraid of the obstacle in front of them, the three genin knew that this was necessary for moving up in the ranks. They weren't going to stay genin forever.

Unlike her two teammates, Miyuki pushed back her fear of other villages ninjas. To her, it was part of the job to face other ninja so it was ridiculous to let fear bother her. That didn't mean she wasn't afraid; she would be a fool to not be afraid. She just had too much to worry about. Her younger sister, Sayuri, depended on Miyuki to bring back money from her missions in order to provide them with the essentials that they needed. Unfortunately, after their mother passed away a few years before, Miyuki's step-father and Sayuri's father decided to start staying out later to the point that he rarely came home. When Miyuki was younger, she though that her step-father, Ryouta, was just abandoning her and her sister and only came back home to have a place to rest at. Now that she was older, she realized it was because of depression that he fell into because he didn't know how to cope with her mother's passing. Miyuki tried to talk some sense into Ryouta, at least for the sake of Sayuri, yet he refused to acknowledge her, telling her that she was just a thirteen year old girl who didn't understand how the world worked. After that, Miyuki decided to work on extra D-rank missions and work extra hours at a small convenience shop that her mother use to own in order to make extra money.

So, Miyuki didn't just see the Chuunin Exams as a way to prove that she was strong, but as a way to earn extra money. The higher her rank, the money she could make by going on higher ranked missions.

"Hey, Beauty Queen." Akari snaps her fingers in front of Miyuki's face.

Scowling, Miyuki narrows her eyes at Akari since she hated it when people snapped at her. This was hypocritical of her considering she had a bad habit of doing the same thing. "What," she whines at her Hyuuga friend.

Akari points her finger toward the back of the restaurant. "Look who's over there." A grin spreads across her face and she moves her eyebrows up and down.

Miyuki didn't have to look at where Akari was pointing to know who she was talking about. The loud voice of a certain bushy eyebrow boy could be heard from the other side of the restaurant where Miyuki was standing. A female's hushing also caught Miyuki's ear, letting her know the hyperactive boy wasn't alone. And by Akari's sly smile, she knew that a certain white eyed boy was sitting with him.

"Let me guess, we're going to sit with them?" Miyuki already knew the answer to that question. Whenever they ran into the members of Team Guy, they had to hang out with them. She guessed they would be considered friends since they were in the same class at the Academy. They were easy to get along with, Lee and TenTen anyways. The Hyuuga member of the team wasn't as pleasant.

Akari doesn't Miyuki's question and rushes off in the direction of Team Guy. "Ugh, I really didn't feel like listening to that Hyuuga over there," Daiki groans from behind Miyuki.

"Just deal with it for an hour or so and then we don't have to talk to him," Miyuki says with a shrug. When it came to Neji, he didn't really talk that much and when he did, Miyuki tried to tune him. Well, she failed at tuning the Hyuuga out. While he was arrogant and self-righteous, Miyuki had a certain soft spot for the Hyuuga. Though she was sure that was only because he was cute and she had no other reason besides that.

Following Daiki, Miyuki sits down at the end of the table, across from the Hyuuga she had just been thinking about. Neji glances at before averting his attention away from her, not speaking a word. Akari was talking to Tenten since they were good friends. Daiki starts a conversation with Lee, the both of them talking about the upcoming Chuunin Exams. Miyuki pulls at her ponytail, trying to make herself feel less awkward. Why didn't she just start up a conversation with Neji? It would give her something to do besides watching the food cook and awkwardly playing with her hair. Neji wasn't that bad of a person, right?

A small smile appears on Miyuki's face at that last thought of hers. Neji was a genius but unfortunately he had a terrible personality. When they were in the Academy, he had told her that she was destined to working in her mother's store and that she would never make it as a ninja. This was because in the Academy she had trouble learning jutsu's since she had such a low chakra amount. While she passed any written test, she still laked in performing jutsu's. To make up for this, she decided to focus on taijutsu and trained with her step-father before he became a drunkard. Luckily, she managed to learn the basic jutsu's in order to graduate yet it took all of her chakra to perform the basic techniques. Though now that she had been training with Kaori, she actually learned how to perform jutsu's, even learning a couple water style jutsu's. She really wanted to rub this fact into the Hyuuga's face.

"So, Miyu," a female's voice interrupts Miyuki just as she goes to open her mouth. Turning her toward the source of the voice, Miyuki sees Tenten smiling at her. "How's your training going?" Of course Tenten would provide her with the perfect opportunity to boast about what she had learned.

Miyuki pushes her cup around in her hands on the table. "Oh, I found out that I do pretty well with water style jutsu's. Turns out that I just needed to work with jutsu's more in my element," Miyuki explains with a shrug.

"Water style?" Tenten questions before realization washes over her face. "Oh, your sensei is an expert in water style, isn't she?"

Miyuki nods. "Yeah. She managed to help me. I mean, I've been training with her before she became my official sensei, but up until I graduated, we didn't really make in progress. I guess I was just a late bloomer, ya know?" Miyuki was beginning to feel awkward talking about herself. While she did desire for people to want to know about her, she felt kind of bad when the attention was all on her.

"That's good. Hopefully all of us will be able to pass the exams and become Chuunin's together," TenTen muses.

Miyuki laughs. "Yeah, girl. We all will totally pass it."

A small snort comes from in front of the black haired girl. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she looks at Neji who wore a slightly smugged smile. "As if these weaklings would be able to become Chuunin's," he says.

Daiki chuckles while putting down his chopsticks. "You wanna bet? I bet I can kick your ass even if don't become Chuunin." He goes to stand up only to be stopped by Miyuki grabbing his hand.

"Oh, come on, Dai. We all know that Neji here is a lot stronger than you are. Save yourself the embarrassment," Miyuki lectures her teammate.

Daiki rolls his eyes before crossing his arms over his chest, a sign that said that he wasn't going to eat. "Whatever," he grumbles, glaring at the table.

"You should just accept that you're incapable of becoming Chuunin," Neji presses before he places a piece of steak in his mouth.

Daiki stands up from where he was sitting. "I'll see you two tomorrow." He motions toward Miyuki and Akari before marching out of the restaurant. Since Daiki had a bad temper, their sensei had been telling him to walk away from people who angered him. At least the ones in the villages seeing as on missions he couldn't just walk away. The reason for this was because on one of their first missions, someone had managed to set off Daiki's anger. This led to Daiki publicly attacking the person and Kaori had to pull the young Sarutobi off the defenseless guy. Since then, Kaori wanted Daiki to stop letting his anger get to him, especially in public.

"You could've been nicer to him." Lee points his chopsticks at Neji who now had his arms crossed over his chest.

Neji shrugs. "It's not my fault he can't handle the truth."

Lee frowns. "Yeah, but still. You know how short tempered Daiki is."

Shaking her head, Miyuki pulls out some money from her pocket and places it on the table. "That's for the food that Daiki and Akari ate," Miyuki says standing up. After stretching, she waves at the group. "See you guys later. My shift starts in a few."

The young genin leaves the restaurant and heads toward her store a few blocks away. She didn't want to leave the restaurant without eating but she was exactly in the mood for any the Hyuuga's smart alec remarks. His attitude didn't bother Akari as much as it did Miyuki and Daiki. This was probably because the two Hyuuga's were distant cousins, being from the same clan. Akari just told them that his attitude was like that because of the way the clan was. She didn't specify but Miyuki didn't see why that would excuse him for having such an awful attitude.

Miyuki walks into the shop, seeing the clerk sitting on the stool behind the counter reading a book. As Miyuki gets closer to the counter, she notices it was one of the adult novels that many adults read. Taking the opportunity, Miyuki slams her hands down the counter and shouts, "Hey, girl! Shouldn't you be working and not reading your porn?"

The young clerk yelps in surprise and jumps off the stool, her book falling from her hands. Placing her hand on her chest, the young brunette glares at the young genin who was now holding her sides from laughter. "Miyuki! Don't do shit like that," she fumes.

Leaning against the counter, Miyuki shrugs. "That's why you shouldn't be slacking on the job, Kimiko."

Kimiko bends over and picks her book. She dusts it off as she walks out from behind the counter. "It's been slow today." She pats Miyuki on the shoulder. "Well, see you tomorrow, girlie. I gotta go home and make dinner."

Miyuki turns around on her heel. "Oh, I'm not going to be here for the rest of the week." Surely the young adult couldn't have forgotten that the Chuunin exams were that week? Miyuki had been talking about it nonstop. Then again, the brunette was an airhead, always forgetting things.

Kimiko curses under her breath. "Really? I had things I needed to do," the brunette whines.

"I've been saying this for the past week. The Chuunin Exams are this week. I've got training and testing to do." Miyuki walks behind the counter and sits down the stool.

Kimiko shakes her head. "Well, you need to get Sayuri to fill in 'cause I've already made plans." The brunette places her hands on her hips.

A small breathy laugh leaves Miyuki's lips. "Actually, I need tell Ryouta to start interviewing new people for the job. Don't forget, Kimiko, you're easily replaceable." Putting her elbows on the counter, Miyuki rests her head in her hands and she stares at the brunette.

Kimiko's face reddens at Miyuki's comment. "I guess I'll be working overtime," she says slowly as if she was choosing her words carefully.

Miyuki smiles. "Good. Glad we have the same understanding."

* * *

Tapping her foot on the ground, Miyuki watches the cloak on the wall. Only thirty more minutes until it was time to close the shop. After being away from her house all day, she was ready to go home and relax. Though she was unsure if she would be able to sleep when she got home. Her mind was racing and when she was thinking about too many things, she couldn't sleep well. This mainly happened when she worried over things and she worried a lot.

The bell for the shop went off, signaling that someone had entered. She looks toward the entrance and notices three kids around her age. The strange thing about them was that Miyuki had never seen them before. There were two boys and one girl. They went their separate ways in the store, each going down a different aisle. The one who caught her attention was the redheaded boy with a guard on his back. She was wondering what the boy hand in the guard and why someone would carry one so big on their back.

"Hey," a deep voice speaks as a hand hits the counter.

Miyuki jumps and looks away from the redhead, averting her attention toward a boy wearing a strange hood that somewhat resembled cat ears. He wore purple face paint on his face along with an irritated frown. "Yes, how may I help you?" Miyuki questions.

"Do you have any face paint?" The boy tapped his finger on the counter like he was in a hurry.

Miyuki presses her lips together and looks pass him to point toward an aisle. "It's not down that aisle?" All the makeup the store had was on that aisle. She usually put the face paint with the makeup since some ninja wore it when they were on the job.

The boy shakes his. "That's where I went. You don't have purple," he says while crossing his arms over his chest.

Miyuki furrows her brows. "That's strange. We should have that color. Let me go check the storage." She walks away from the counter to a back room. She goes to where they usually put the extra face paint at and curses when she didn't notice the step stool that she usually used. Looking up at the top shelf, Miyuki groans as she decides to step onto one the shelves to pull herself up so she could grab the box on the top shelf. A sharp pain shots across her hand as she places her hand on one of the higher shelves which causes her to jump off the shelves.

A colorful line of profanities leave her mouth as she looks down at her hand, a nice red line appearing across her palm with red liquid flooding out of it. Looking around the room, Miyuki grabs an old towel from one of the shelves and wraps it around her hand. She steps back onto the lower shelves and pulls herself up, careful not to touch what she had before. Using the hand that was wrapped in a towel, she slides it across the shelf that caused her to become injured. Something falls to ground with a loud ping, signaling that it was metal. Not bothering to look down, she supports herself on her injured hand, ignoring the pain and grabs the box with face paint. Once she has the box, she jumps down off the shelves.

"A box cutter? Really?" Miyuki glares down at the razor on the ground and puts the box on another shelf so she could look at its contents. She smiles in relief when she notices the purple tube, letting her know she didn't go through all of that for no reason. She bends over to pick up the box cutter and closes it, stuffing it into her pocket before she picks out two tubes of purple from the box. Walking back into the store, she notices that the other two kids were standing there with the boy with face paint.

"I found the purple face paint," Miyuki announces as she walks back behind the counter. "It looks like my coworker forgot to put them out." She puts the tubes down on the counter. "Along with other things she's forgotten," Miyuki adds, looking at her hand wrapped in the towel.

The boy with face paint picks up the purple tubes. "I only needed one." He sets one of them back onto the counter.

Miyuki slides the tube back in his direction. "It's on me for causing you an inconvenience." Miyuki shrugs it off.

"Oh. Well, thanks I guess," the boy says before looking down at her hand. "Are you going to leave it like that?" He points at it in the towel.

"Why the hell not? I don't even feel it anymore." She waves her hand in dismissal before looking at the other kids with him. The girl had a couple of drinks set in front of her while the redhead had nothing. Pointing to the drinks, Miyuki asks, "Are you buying these with him?"

The girl nods. "Well, duh. He's my brother."

Miyuki's eyes widen as she says, "I was just checking. Some people buy things separately, ya know?" She puts in the prices of the drinks and one of the face paint tubes into the cash register. She tells them the price and the boy with the face paint hands her the money. As Miyuki goes to bag the stuff, it dongs on her that they were wearing headbands for a different village; the Sand Village.

"Are you guys participating in the Chuunin Exams?" Miyuki asks as she hands the bag to the most talkative member of the group.

The boy smirks. "Why else would we be here?"

Miyuki's jaw tightens. What was it with people and their smart-ass attitudes that day? "I'm participating in it as well." She chose not to say anything smart back, not wanting word to get back to her step-father that she was having an attitude with customers.

The boy looks her up and down. "You won't make it considering you let a shelf kick your ass," he comments.

"I have you know I can always make you pay for that tube of paint." Miyuki puts her hand on her hip and gives the boy a pointed look.

The boy laughs. "Not if I give it back to you." He goes to pull out the tube from the bag when Miyuki holds up hand.

"Boy, I'm just messing with you." Miyuki shakes her head at him. "Now, go on. It's closing time." She waves her hand as if to shoo him away.

The boy pulls his hand out of the bag. "What's your name?"

Miyuki furrows her brows for a moment before speaking. "Miyuki. And yours?"

The boy smirks before pushing the door open. As he walks out the door to follow his team, who had left him in the shop, he calls over his shoulder, "Kankuro."


	2. Pleasant Mornings

Most people find it pretty easy to sleep. They could lay down in their beds and within minutes they'd be visiting the Land of Dreams. By easily sleeping, they would not have to worry about not getting enough sleep. They woke up refreshed and were able to carry out their morning with ease. Hell, some had the privilege of being able to roll out of bed, to just brush their hair out so it look decent without taking a shower, and were able to leave the house without looking like they just fell off a cliff.

This wasn't the case with Miyuki.

Everyone morning, it took her from thirty minutes to an hour to actually wake herself up. Her alarm clock was set to go off at least five times, more if she decided to hit the snooze button. This led to her setting her alarm an hour ahead of the time she wanted to be up for. Sometimes when she was at home, her younger sister would wake her up before she left for school. Other times, it was up to Miyuki to decide if she wanted to get up at a decent time or just sleep for another couple hours. After waking herself up, Miyuki would either lay or sit on her bed, staring at her walls while telling herself that she needed to get up and get ready. Yet in the mornings, Miyuki had no motivation at all. Her teammates would often tell her that they had no idea how she made it as a ninja. They told her if she wasn't on a team, she would probably fail every mission she went on since she wouldn't be able to wake herself up. Or worse, she would probably be killed.

Though Miyuki didn't consider this lack of motivation to get up in the mornings her fault. It was mainly because she was tired. For the past four years, Miyuki had been having trouble going to sleep, mainly from stress. This led to her staying up until three in the morning almost every night because she couldn't make herself fall asleep. During the hours she couldn't fall asleep, she would read her romance novels in hopes of it boring her to the point of sleepiness. When this didn't work, she would walk to her favorite spot in the village, the pond. She would sit on the pier and stare at the water, only doing this for a little over an hour before returning home. If her little adventure to the pond didn't cause her to feel sleepy, then she would do some work around the house before the sleepiness kicked in.

Unfortunately for Miyuki, the night before had been another night of not being able to sleep. Anxiety had crept in her thoughts since the Chuunin exams were that morning. She was also thinking about the type of people that would be taking the exams as well. Kaori had told her and her teammates that some of the participants would seem little scary. Though the three genin knew that Kaori's "little scary" was their terrifying scary. Miyuki couldn't make any judgments on the other participants since the only ones she knew of were from Team Guy, the rookies fresh out of the Academy, and the three Sand genin she met in the shop the other night. Team Guy and the rookies didn't seem that scary to her, but she was sure that was only because she knew them from the Academy. The Sand genin on the other seemed extremely cocky when it came to their abilities, the only one seeming scary being the redhead. Miyuki didn't get a chance to speak to him that night in the shop, since her attention was focused on other things, but from what she observed, she could tell that he had a bad aura.

Pushing her thoughts aside, Miyuki groggily sits up on her bed. She pulls the hair that was stuck on her face by drool off with disgust. As she stares at the wall, Miyuki runs her fingers through her knotted hair. She was certain that it resembled a bird's nest. It _felt_ like a bird's nest. She picks at the knots in her hair, trying to ease them out without having to butcher them with a brush.

The sound of yelling causes Miyuki to curse under her breath and leads to her rolling out of bed. Rushing out of her room, she makes it to the kitchen where Ryouta and Sayuri where at. Ryouta had a scowl on his face as he stares at Sayuri.

"How hard is it to make some breakfast?" He asks.

Sayuri's brows were furrowed as she stares at her father with her arms cross over her chest. "I've got somewhere to be."

"Where does an eight year old need to be?" He took a sip of his drink.

"I promised Hikari I would help her with her taijutsu this morning," Sayuri explains.

A loud sigh leaves Ryouta's lips. "I'm sure your friend can wait. You have the whole day," he grumbles.

Sayuri opens her mouth to say something but Miyuki waves at her to keep quiet. She didn't want Sayuri to have to deal with Ryouta's attitude. Especially in the mornings since he was usually grumpy from a hangover. Walking to the refrigerator, she opens it, and pulls out the carton of eggs and bacon. Kicking the fridge close, she walks over to the counter and puts the food on it.

"How do you want your eggs?" Miyuki asks even though she already knew the answer to it. Though it never hurt to make sure.

"Scrambled. Oh, and make some toast while you're at it," Ryouta answers.

Miyuki mouths his words under her breath while she got a bowl for the eggs. "Yuri," Miyuki calls over her shoulder, hoping her sister was still in the room.

"Huh?"

"What time is it? I still gotta get ready." She didn't bother to check the time when she got up. The fussing was her main concern at that moment.

After a moment, Sayuri answers, "Uh, it's fifteen 'til nine."

Miyuki curses under breath. "I gotta be at the Academy at ten." She puts the eggs in the frying pan before pulling another one out if the cabinet. Turning around, Miyuki looks at her sister. "Can you do me a huge favor and make sure my equipment is together? If not, will you get it together for me?"

"Sure," Sayuri says with a shrug before walking out of the kitchen.

Once he heard Sayuri go up the stairs, Ryouta asks Miyuki, "And where do you have to be this morning?"

"Today's the Chuunin Exam," she answers as she pours some oil in the frying pan.

Ryouta grunts. "You're finally going to rank up?"

Miyuki shrugs as she places the last piece of bacon in the pan and moving to stir the eggs in the other pan. "That's what I'm aiming for, dude."

The sound of pounding footsteps keeps Ryouta from saying anything else. Sayuri rushes into the kitchen before leaning against the counter beside Miyuki. "Uh, your kunai holster has a big hole in the bottom of it," Sayuri announces.

Cursing, Miyuki turns the eye off for the eggs and places the pan onto an eye that wasn't on. She moves to the bacon and turning the pieces of meat around. "This is just fabulous. What else can go wrong this morning?" She asks just a grease pops against her skin. Another curse leaves Miyuki's lips. She could tell this was going to be a troublesome morning.

* * *

Once Miyuki was done making Ryouta's breakfast, she had to rush to get ready. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough time to take a shower, something that annoyed her because her hair would have to stay greasy. When she finished getting ready, she rushed out the door, her hands pulling her hair into a high ponytail. Cursing under her breath, Miyuki runs pass people on the crowded street, bumping into some people on the way. This running into people earn her a few snide comments, mainly from older adults who commented on how kids needed to slow down for once. When Miyuki finally makes it to the academy, she bends over to place her hands on her knees, panting for breath. This was not the morning she was planning for.

The sound of laughter causes Miyuki to jerk her head up, her eyes spotting two familiar people. "Oh, shut up," Miyuki snaps at the two people.

"You look like you're in a hurry," Akari comments through her laughter.

Miyuki straightens up so she was standing at her actual height. "Well, I'm running behind," she grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest.

Daiki shakes his head, an amused smile planted on his face. "No, you're not."

Miyuki furrows her brows. "What do you mean I'm not," she questions, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Akari laughs as she walks over to Miyuki. "We told you that it started an hour early because we know how slow you can be in the mornings," Akari says, swinging her arm around Miyuki's neck.

Miyuki blinks at them as she processes what Akari had just told her. Clicking her tongue, Miyuki pushes Akari off of her and shakes her fist at her teammates. "How dare you lie to me!" Miyuki yells at them.

Daiki and Akari exchange glances before smiling awkwardly at the short black haired girl. "Well, you are pretty slow at getting ready in the mornings," Akari says while she scratches her cheek.

"And if we really did have to wait for you to show at the actual time we really would be late," Daiki adds with a sigh.

Miyuki crosses her arms over her chest, again. "Because of you two I didn't get to shower," she grumbles.

Daiki laughs as he shakes his finger at Miyuki. "Hey, now. Don't blame us because you're too lazy to get up in the mornings."

Making a tsking sound, Miyuki walks past her teammates to go inside the building. At the moment, she was upset with the both of them. She knew that it was probably a stupid reason to be mad at them. After all, they were making sure that they made it on time to the exam. Though she was pissed that she had to spend the day without being clean. She hated being dirty. Whenever she felt her skin getting oily or when she noticed any kind of dirt, she had to take a bath to get rid of the filth. This was troublesome during missions, and her teammates had to deal with the outcome of it; Miyuki's complaining. And anyone who knew Miyuki knew that she could complain for a day and then some.

As she heads toward the stairs, she notices a familiar face. Well, it wasn't really a face. It was the back of a cat-like hood and a wrapped up puppet that caught Miyuki's attention. Walking alongside him was the blonde girl with a fan on her back and the short redhead with the gourd. Deciding to push aside her bad mood, she quickens her pace to catch up to the trio of Sand ninjas.

"Hey! Kankuro, right?" Miyuki calls while raising her hand to signal it was her that was talking.

The Sand ninjas stop walking and the boy with the cat-like hood turns around. His lips pressed together to form a frown and he squints his eyes at Miyuki. After a moment, he says, "Oh, it's you."

The comment stung her slightly, seeing that she was hoping that he'd at least smile back at her or something. Lowering her hand, Miyuki stops walking after she reaches a few feet away from the boy with face paint. "Uh, yeah. I just thought I'd say hello and all that good stuff, ya know?" Miyuki comments, suddenly feeling awkward. She didn't know this guy enough to just randomly talk to him.

"Is that so?" Kankuro questions as he stuffs his hands in his pockets.

A snicker leaves the blonde girl. "Kankuro, should we leave you to your new fan girl?" The girl snickers again before looking at Miyuki with a mocking smile.

Miyuki opens her mouth to make a remark to the comment only to be interrupted by Daiki. "The day Miyuki fan girls over someone will be the day hell freezes over." The Sarutobi stands beside Miyuki and crosses his arms over his chest. His brown eyes look Kankuro up and down before moving to study the other two Sand ninja. "How do you know these people?" Daiki questions, looking down at Miyuki.

"They stopped by the shop the other day." Miyuki scratches the side of her face.

Someone laces their arm with Miyuki and the only person that came to her mind that would do that was Akari. "Beauty Queen, haven't we told you not to bother strangers from the shop?" The Hyuuga chuckles from Miyuki's side.

Fidgeting, Miyuki scowls at the closeness of her teammates. They knew she hated feeling closed in yet there they were on both sides of her and within her personal boundaries. "Can you both like," Miyuki gestures her hands to mimic a gap, "scooch away, like a couple feet." Sighing, Daiki steps away from her and Akari unlaces her arm from Miyuki's, stepping a couple feet away. They both shoot her look to ask if she was happy.

Kankuro lets out a chuckle as he watches the Leaf genin. "Are you sure this is good time?" He raises a brow at Miyuki.

Miyuki presses her lips together as she glances at her teammates before shaking her head. "Nah, its fine."

Kankuro nods before saying, "I can't believe you're still participating. I mean, after getting your ass kicked by that shelf."

"Oh, shut up. I didn't see the box cutter," Miyuki whines before crossing her arms over her chest. It was embarrassing that the enemies had witness her not paying attention to her surroundings. As ninjas, it was something they were supposed to do, even when they weren't working. Now the purple faced Sand ninja could remind her for the rest of her existence that she cut herself with a box cutter, or shelf since he found that more amusing.

Kankuro's eyes widen as he presses his lips together. After letting out air through his nose, he says, "And that's why you fail as a ninja."

"Ugh, you don't have to be a jerk about it." Miyuki wasn't amused by his comments.

Kankuro shrugs. "I'm just telling the truth."

Miyuki lets out a small chuckle. "You're not amusing," she says with a hand gesture.

Kankuro narrows his eyes. "I don't like short people," he comments.

"The fuck does that got to do with anything?" Miyuki asks, placing her hands on her hips. "And biologically speaking, females tend to be shorter than males," she adds, not quite understanding why he would dislike people base on something as stupid such as height.

"I don't like kids," Kankuro clarifies, crossing his arms over his chest.

Miyuki's eyes widen as she gestures her hands to 'what-the-hell.' "Dude, how old is you?"

"Fourteen."

"Then chill. You're only one year older, bruh." She was having a hard time understanding where this was coming from. The other night he didn't have a problem with her age. "You're being a jerk today. I can't believe that I actually wanted to talk to you." Miyuki didn't want to stick around to see what his problem was that morning. Maybe it was the Exam?

Kankuro snorts. "I didn't ask you to talk to me," he remarks.

Clicking her tongue, Miyuki rolls her eyes before looking at her teammates. "You guys ready?" She wasn't going to waste her time talking to someone who didn't want to talk to her. All she wanted to do was be friendly but obviously Sand ninjas didn't like friendly. Not waiting for her teammates to answer, Miyuki turns on her heels to walk away from the Sand ninjas. This morning just was not her morning.

Wrapping a finger around a strand of hair, Miyuki twirls the hair around her finger as she walks up the stairs. She was ready to get this exam over with so she could go home. The sound of footsteps in a hurry told her that her teammates were following her. Well, at least she hoped it was her teammates. It would be awkward if random people were following her. Once she makes it to the third floor and down the hall to room 301, she turns to her teammates.

"So, we're really doing this?" The question left her mouth before she could stop it. Truth be told, she was anxious about the test. It wasn't something that she could study for and she had no idea what to expect from it. She hated the unknown.

Pressing her lips together, Akari squints her eyes at Miyuki before smiling. "Girl, we ain't been training for all this time to not do it," she says, placing her hands on hips and tilting her chin upward.

Daiki scratches the back of his head. "It really doesn't matter to me if we do this or not. But it would be a pain if I've wasted all of my time training to quit now," he says, agreeing with what Akari says.

Letting out a breath, Miyuki gives them a small smile. "Just checking on you guys, ya know." She didn't want them to know that she was scared. That would be embarrassing since she could be the most boastful of the group. Not giving them a chance to say anything, Miyuki claps her hands together. "Okay! Let's do this!"

Turning on her heel, Miyuki reaches her hands out and grabs the door knob. Turning it, she owns the door to be greeted by a large crowd of ninja. Some of them turn to look at the three genin while others didn't even notice them come in. The majority of ninja there were Konoha ninja. This wasn't surprising considering that Konoha was the village hosting the exam. The next majority of ninja were from Suna. That was kind of surprising considering that Konoha and Suna weren't on the best of terms. There were also quite a few ninja from Amagakure. A good bit were from Takigakure and Kusagakure. And from what Miyuki could see, only one team from Otogakure was there, at least for the moment. She had no idea if more were going to be participating.

All the ninjas shared one trait, regardless of where they were from: completely terrifying.

Miyuki had no idea why these ninjas looked so intimidating. It was like they were sent from the Underworld as the death god's personal demons. Like, seriously, did they have something against her? _Don't be ridiculous, Miyuki. Why would a deity have anything against you?_ Miyuki mentally scolds herself, a crease forming between her brows. She needed to stop being so paranoid.

"Hey, let's sit over there." Akari bumps her elbow against Miyuki's arm. Miyuki jumps, startled by the touch. Akari raises a brow. "Jumpy already," she muses with amusement.

Clicking her tongue, Miyuki ignores Akari while she walls over to the place she had suggested they sit at. It was in the middle of the room, slightly near the front. It also had more Konoha ninja than other parts of the room. Miyuki guessed this was the reason Akari to sit there, to be around people from their village. Though the three ninja sitting in front of them stood out. Well, one kunoichi to be.

The girl sitting directly in front of Miyuki was sporting a long, black closed fan, similar to the girl from Kankuro's group. From her research, Miyuki knew that fans were popular weapons in Suna since many ninja from there used a wind styled chakra nature. From this small detail, Miyuki knew she was from Suna, along with her two teammates.

As Miyuki adverts her attention away from the fan, she notices the one small hoop earring on the girls left ear. _Just one? Who only wears one earring?_ Thinking that maybe she missed it, she leans forward and leans her body toward the right. As she leans in, she catches the smell of something soothing; mint. Miyuki loved the smell of mint. Was that smell coming from the Suna kunoichi?

Just when Miyuki was about to lean back into her seat, the kunoichi turns around, an eyebrow raised at Miyuki. "Is there a problem?" The girl asks in confusion.

"Aha," Miyuki chuckles lightly as she shakes her head. "Nah. I was just checking out your earring. I've been thinking about getting piercings myself," Miyuki says, trying to think of a reasonable excuse. Now that the words left her mouth, she realized that her actions made no sense whatsoever.

The girl turns around more in her seat so she was resting her arms on the desk. "I just got one." She points to her left ear. "I got it when I was four-ish and apparently it hurt too much so my parents didn't let the man pierce the other ear. I've never gotten around to get the other pierced, so I just have one," the girl explained.

Miyuki nods. "I see. But it shouldn't be a problem now since we're used to getting hurt and stuff," Miyuki adds.

"Oh, absolutely. I'm not afraid, I just keep forgetting." The girl holds her hand out. "Ayaka," she introduces herself.

Grabbing the girl's hand, Miyuki says, "Miyuki. Nice to meet you."

Ayaka let's go of Miyuki's hand. Her green eyes look over Miyuki's teammates before a smirk appears on her face. Scooting over, she leans over toward Daiki. "And who might you be?" She bats her eyes at him while running a finger across his forearm.

Red covers Daiki's face before he covers his mouth with his hand and coughs. "Uh, I'm Daiki," he manages to spit out, lowering his hand.

Miyuki snorts at this as she crosses her arms over chest. "Seriously," she mumbles.

Not hearing Miyuki's comment, Ayaka leans in closer to Daiki. "Ya know, it's a shame that we're going to be enemies. You're not bad to look at," she muses.

One of the Suna ninjas looks at Ayaka before shaking his head. "There she goes again," he says with a sigh.

"For real," the other teammate of Ayaka's adds. "It's like she thinks this a match making service or something."

Scrunching up her nose, Miyuki narrows her eyes at her teammate and the kunoichi. So she was _that_ kind of her girl? Miyuki hoped that Daiki didn't get caught up with her. Unfortunately, he couldn't resist girls and he wore his heart on his sleeve when it came to them. He once tried to ask Ino Yamanaka, the young kunoichi who worked at her parents flower shop, out but she refused him, saying that her heart belonged to Sasuke Uchiha. This led to him going into a small depression before finding a new girl to crush on.

Akari nudges Miyuki and leans her face in so her mouth was near Miyuki's ear. "Are jealous?" She whispers with a chuckle.

Leaning away from the Hyuuga, Miyuki whispers back, "Of course not."

"Then why do you seem so bothered over that?" Akari nods her head in the direction of Daiki and Ayaka.

Miyuki leans back in her seat. "Not for reasons you're thinking of," she mutters. Before Akari could comment on that, loud voices come from the back of the room. _Now who is being this loud at a time like this?_


	3. The Nine Obnoxious Rookies

"Hey, you porker! Back off, he's mine," a voice shouts from the back of the class.

Turning around, Miyuki looks for the source of the voice finding when she notices six figures standing in front of the doors. Her eyes automatically fall onto a familiar black haired boy with a blonde girl draped across his shoulder. A girl with pink hair was standing in front of them with her finger pointed at them and a scowl washed over face. Miyuki guessed this girl was the source of the yelling.

"Oh, this is going to be entertaining," Miyuki muses.

"Miss. Forehead, they let you in?" The blonde questions with a slight smile. "Still got those big frown lines on your billboard-brow I see," the girl continues to mock the pink haired girl.

The pinkette makes a trembling fist. "Leave my forehead out of it," she snaps. The blonde girl's only response was the pulling of her eyelid and sticking her tongue out at the pink haired girl.

_G_e_ez, are all of these kids immature? _Miyuki frowns as she watches two boys approach the group. The boy with his hair in a spiky ponytail says something that was too low for Miyuki to hear while the chubby boy just stood beside him, eating chips. _He might want to lay off of those._

"So, all three stooges are here," a blond boy says a little too loudly.

The spiky-ponytail boy steps forward. "Hey! You know what pipsqueak?" He begins to say but then mutters something that Miyuki couldn't make out besides the words "forget" and "waste." Perhaps that pointless arguing was a waste of time? She didn't know but it was frustrating her that she couldn't make out all of the conversation. She wanted to be nosy.

"Well, well. Whaddya know? It looks like the whole gangs back together again," another voice calls out, belonging to a boy with a dog on his head. Following him was a girl with short, black hair who obviously appeared uncomfortable, and a boy with black hair wearing dark glasses.

_Three more? That makes nine kids together._ Miyuki's eyes widen before she slaps her forehead. Of course, it was the nine rookies fresh from the academy. It was obvious that they were new, considering how loud they were being.

"You guys, too, huh? Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing," the spiky-ponytail boy complains. _This is actually kind of important, stupid._

"Yup, here we all are, the nine rookies," the dog boy laughs. "This is going to fun. At least, for those of us good enough to make the cut. Right, Sasuke?" The boy boasts which causes the blonde girl to stare in anger at him while holding up a fist. Now that Miyuki got to look at her more closely, she realized that she was that Ino Yamanaka girl from the flower shop.

"Kiba. Careful you don't get overconfident," Sasuke replies with a smirk.

Akari shifts in her seat. "Oh, he's actually kind of cute," she comments.

Miyuki glances at her before clicking her tongue. "Yeah, I guess he's alright," she grumbles. Truth be told, she didn't actually find anything special about the Uchiha. To her, he was only famous because he was the last person from the Uchiha clan. Did he even have the talent to back it up? She didn't know. The only other factor about that was worth getting bothered about was his good looks but looks weren't everything. After all, she had learned that he had an arrogant personality and she wasn't down with that. Though maybe all of the other girls like cold, distant guys. She didn't. She liked people who had more personality.

When Miyuki looks back at the nine rookies, she notices that tension had begun to rise between the group again. The fat boy was glaring at the boy with dark glasses. Straining her ears, she hears the mention of stepping on something and saving the thing for lunch. _Wait, what? Are they going to fight about a stupid bug?_

"Hey, you guys." A new voice catches Miyuki's attention. Averting her eyes from the nine rookies, she notices an older boy with gray hair walking toward the group. "You might wanna try keeping it down a little," he continues as he stops walking and places his hands on his hips as he stares at them. "I mean, no offense but you are the nine rookies, right? Fresh out of the academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it. This isn't a class field trip," the boy lectures.

"Well, who asked you? Who are you?" Ino commands.

The boy looks at her. "I'm Kabuto Yakushi," he answers her question. "But, really, look around you," he continues, leading to the group to look around the classroom. Miyuki didn't need to look to know that people around her were on edge. She could feel the tension in the room. It was quite suffocating. "You've made quite an impression," he comments. The group stops looking, focusing on another group of ninjas. Kabuto says something that Miyuki couldn't make out but by the look on his face, she could it wasn't something that was good. "You can't help it. I mean, how could you know how things work? You're just rookies. You remind of myself a while back," Kabuto says at a regular volume.

"Kabuto, is that your name?" The pinkette asks, eying him.

"Yeah."

"This isn't the first time you've taken the exam?" She questions.

"No, it's..." Kabuto hesitates before saying, "My seventh."

Daiki snickers from beside Miyuki. "Ouch, buddy. Maybe it's time for you to think of a new career choice," he jokes.

Miyuki leans over and slaps Daiki's arm. "Shh, he might hear you," she says with a laugh.

"Well, they're held twice a year. So this will be my fourth year," he says in order to clear things up. _Nah, bro. You still fail at this. Time to pack your shit and go home._

This little fact didn't stop the pinkette from being amazed. "Wow! A veteran! You must really be an expert by now," she says.

Miyuki snorts. "Sure. An expert at failing."

Daiki slaps her arm. "Now look who needs to be quiet," he chuckles.

Miyuki laughs before shrugging. "I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking," she says before leaning over to one of the sand ninjas with Ayaka. "Ain't that right, dude?" The boy just looks at Miyuki before laughing. Miyuki smiles at this before looking at Daiki with raised eyebrows. "See? He agrees with me," she says before returning her attention to the rookies.

"Some expert, he's never passed," the ponytail boy says, pointing out what Miyuki had just said.

Kabuto scratches the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, seventh times the charm. That's what they say, huh?"

"Nah, bro, it's the third," Miyuki mutters, crossing her arms over her chest.

"So, I guess all of those rumors about the exam being tough are true. Oh man, I knew this was going to be a drag," the ponytail boy complains.

"Hang on. Don't give up hope yet. Maybe I can help you kids out a little," Kabuto says while reaching inside his pocket. He pulls out an deck of orange cards and displayed them in front of his face. "With my ninja info cards."

Miyuki snorts. "Ninja info cards? _What_?"

"What the heck are those?" The pinkette asks.

"It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned these past four years," Kabuto answers while crouching to place the deck of cards on the floor. "I've got more than two-hundred of them. So you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye, in fact, they appear blank," he continues.

Miyuki tries to make herself taller in order to see the cards, but gives up since she was too far away. "I knew we should've sat over there," she grumbles.

"What are you doing?" The pinkette asks, this time in tone that said she didn't want to be associated with him anymore. Now Miyuki really wanted to know what he was doing.

"You see, I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets. Like this for example," Kabuto answers and a small puff of smoke erupts from what Miyuki guessed to be one of his cards.

"Awesome, a map," the pinkette exclaims before a look of confusion washes over her face. "Of what?"

_I'd really like to know that as well considering I can't see a damn thing._ Miyuki frowns, upset that she was too far away to see.

"It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who have come to take the Chuunin Exam. What villages they are from and how many from each village. Why do you guys think they all come here to take the exam together? At the same time?" The boy pauses to give the group of rookies a chance to answer. After a moment of silence, he continues to say, "It's to foster friendship between nations, of course. International brotherhood and all that. And it's true enough as far as it goes."

"But there's another reason," Sasuke speaks up.

"Yeah. You see, the important thing is that this way they can carefully regulate the number of shinobi that end up in each village. Thereby maintaining a balance of power," Kabuto clears up. Balance of power? Was that really necessary? Miyuki didn't know.

"Oh, yeah." The blond boy nods. "The balance of power." By his body language and tone of voice, Miyuki guessed that he didn't understand what was being said.

"Balance of power, big deal. It's all a drag," the ponytail boy adds_._ Miyuki could tell that he was quite the optimistic.

"If the balance isn't maintained, the nation can wind up with many more shinobi than its neighbors, and it may be tempted to attack them. So, they try to maintain the status quo. Makes sense, I suppose," Kabuto says.

The Uchiha steps forward. "Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?" Sasuke asks.

Kabuto looks at Sasuke. "They might," he answers. "You have someone special in mind?" He asks.

With narrowed eyes, Sasuke replies, "I might."

"Well, I can't promise my info is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone," Kabuto says as he straightens out his cards. "Including you guys," he adds.

Miyuki makes a face. "Well, if that isn't creepy, than I don't know what it is," she comments. Though, who seriously collected random information on strangers? Creepers, that's who.

"So, which one is it? Tell me anything you know about them. A description, where they're from, whatever. Anything at all." Kabuto shows off one his cards.

"He's Gaara of the Desert. And there's Rock Lee from Konoha while you're at it," Sasuke says.

Miyuki laughs. "This guy's questioning Lee," she says, nudging Daiki. "Lee's not intimidating. He's a pretty sweet guy."

Daiki smirks at Miyuki with a lifted brow. "Gotta crush on him?"

Miyuki nods. "Oh, _absolutely_," Miyuki says, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Bushy eyebrows and all. That jumpsuit really gets me going, ya know," she adds causing Daiki to snort.

"Here they are," Kabuto says, catching Miyuki's attention.

"Show them to me," Sasuke orders, something Miyuki thought was unnecessary.

"Okay, first up is Rock Lee." Kabuto places the card on the ground and a puff of smoke appears shortly after. "Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Mission experience, eleven C-ranks and twenty D-ranks. His squad leader is Guy, and in the last twelve months, his taijutsu had radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaking. Last year, he got a lot of attention as a genin, but for some reason, he chose not to participate in the Chuunin Exam. This will be his first time as a candidate, same as you guys. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuuga," Kabuto explains.

Miyuki blinks. "Wow, all that from one card?"

"Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert," Kabuto says. "Mission experience, eight C-ranks and," he trails off before continuing, "Get this, one B-rank as a genin. There's not a lot more information on this guy. He was a rookie from another land, originally. But there is this, he's survived every mission without getting a scratch on him," Kabuto says before fixing his glasses.

"The dude's done a B-rank as a genin and has never been injured?" The ponytail boy says in disbelief.

Miyuki had a hard time believing this as well. How could a genin go on a B-rank mission without getting hurt? That didn't make sense. Miyuki turns to Ayaka to see she had a crease between her forehead. "Who's this Gaara of the Desert?" Miyuki asks her, guessing he was from Suna.

Ayaka looks at her before glancing around the room. Her eyes stop moving and lock on someone. "Him." She points. "The redhead with the gourd on his back," she describes.

Miyuki looks at where she was pointing, realizing that it was the same redhead that was with Kankuro. He didn't seem very impressed that Kabuto knew this about him. Not surprising. Kabuto didn't have much information on him.

Looking back the group of nine rookies, she noticed that they now appeared anxious. What did she miss while she was looking around the classroom? She notices the pink hair girl place a hand on the blond boy, who was trembling.

"Hey, don't worry, Naruto. We'll be fine," she says with a smile before gasping.

The boy then let's out a loud battle cry as he points at the crowd of ninjas, catching everyone's attention, including the ones who were ignoring them. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to beat every one of ya! Believe it," he exclaims.

"Hey," Ino yells at the pink haired girl, pointing her finger at Naruto. "What's that idiot trying to do, get us killed?" She moves her face closer to the pinkette. "Tell your boyfriend to keep his big, fat trap shut," Ino orders.

"Who's boyfriend," the pinkette bellows.

"Oh, I forgot, you can't get one!"

"What'd you say!"

Naruto places his arms behind his head. "Yeah! I feel a lot better now," he says, obviously amused of himself.

After processing what just happened, Miyuki lets out a loud laugh. These rookies were a bunch of idiots. She didn't find them to be a threat of any kind. Though they made good entertainment. Though once she catches onto the mood of the rest of the crowd, she stops laughing. Obviously not everyone thought it was funny since the majority of people were glaring at the nine rookies. _Geez, these people have no humor._

"Uh, can you say that a little louder? Didn't quite catch it," the dog boy says while covering his mouth with his hand.

"You moron. Are you trying to get everybody in this place to hate our guts or what?" The ponytail boy adds.

Naruto starts to laugh before the pink hair girl grabs him and starts choking him. "Naruto! You idiot! How could you say something like that? You obnoxious little-" she growls between gritted teeth before stopping. Looking up at the crowd, she smiles at them and waves her hand. "Oh, hi everyone! Don't mind him! Sometimes he says these spazzy things! He doesn't really mean them. They just come out! He's got this, um, condition, you know? Kind of a psychological thing. He really should be on medication," she babbles before releasing Naruto and continues to lecture him.

After moment, a flash darts around the room, catching Miyuki's eye. She goes to shrug it off before noticing a guy appearing above Kabuto, darting his kunai in front of Kabuto. Kabuto was able to dodge it but another guy with his head wrapped up appears in front of him and aims for a punch to the face. Kabuto dodges this swiftly and a smirk appears on his face only to fall as his glasses shattered to the ground.

"What the?" Miyuki questions.

After a couple of the rookies question what happened, Kabuto falls to the ground. A couple seconds later and Kabuto disgorges his lunch. _Ew. That's gross,_ Miyuki thinks as the rookies ask Kabuto what was wrong.

"Heh." The ninja, that Miyuki now noticed was from the Sound Village, smirks. "Not such a tough guy after all, I guess. Maybe that's why he's on his seventh try," the guy with bandages says.

"Write this on your little card, punk. The genin from the Sound Village will be chuunin when this is over. Guaranteed," the other Sound ninja says.

Miyuki didn't get a chance to ask her teammates what happen before a puffing noise comes from the front of the classroom. Miyuki turns around to see what was going on, noticing smoke causing her furrow her brows. _What the?_

"Alright you baby-faced degenerates! Pipe down and listen up! It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy."


	4. Chuunin Exam: Written Test

Once the smoke clears, a man with his headband wrapped around his head could be seen standing in front of a few more ninjas. Miyuki guessed his was Ibiki. He wore a stern expression as he looked at the back of the classroom. Pointing a finger toward the back he yells, "First, you ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sound, knock it off! Who told you, you could fight? You wanna fail before we've even begun?"

Miyuki turns her attention back toward the back just to hear the boy with bandages say, "Sorry, it's our first time. Guess we're a little jumpy... sir." By the tone of his voice Miyuki could tell he wasn't really sorry. In fact, it seemed as if he could care less.

"I'll say this once, so listen up," Ibiki yells, causing Miyuki to look back at him to see him wearing a smirk. "There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without permission of your proctor, and even then, the use of fatal force is strictly forbidden. Anyone who thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?" Ibiki finishes in an authoritative, and slightly intimidating, tone.

"No fatal force? That's no fun," a guy says from behind Miyuki. She didn't bother to look to see who it was considering she was getting tired of turning around.

Ignoring the boys comment, Ibiki proceeds to say, "Now if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chuunin Exam. Hand over your paperwork, in return you'll each be given a number." He holds up a piece of paper with the number '1' printed on it. "This number will determine where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated," he explains.

A curse leaves Daiki's mouth at the mention of this causing Miyuki to smirk. He sucked at written tests. Leaning over, Miyuki whispers, "Pay back's a bitch, huh?"

Daiki shoots her a glare. "Shut up, Miyuki," he spits. "This isn't funny. I'm totally gonna fail this."

Ignoring him, Miyuki hops up and stretches. "Guess we better get our numbers, huh," she says to her teammates. Akari nods with a smile. She had this. Like Miyuki, she did well one written exams. Daiki was the only one of their group who completely sucked at them. He did better at hand-to-hand combat, using justsu's, and using survival skills. Miyuki would say that was because he was male and males relied more on brute force but that would sexist. Plus, Neji Hyuuga was a guy and he did amazing his tests.

After standing in line and listening to people grumble about a written test, Miyuki was finally able to hand in her paperwork to one of the sentinels who handed her a number. Looking at her number, she goes to find her number, finding it annoying to try to look around the room at the seats since there was so many people in her way. While she was struggling to find her number, a finger taps on her shoulder. Turning around, she sees an older face and a man dressed in gray which told her that he was one of the sentinels.

"Your seats over there," he says, pointing his finger toward somewhere in the room.

Looking to where he was pointing, Miyuki sees that she was supposed to be sitting near the wall. Turning back to the man, she gives him a smile and says, "Thank you, sir!"

Walking across the room, Miyuki makes it to her seat. She places her pencils and easer down before she sits down. Once she was situated, she watches the other genin get their numbers and sit in various places around the room. Once everyone was seated, Miyuki looks around to see where her teammates where. Akari was seated toward the middle of the room, while Daiki was seated toward the back. When she was done looking at her teammates, someone makes a 'psst-ing' sound and pulls her hair.

Yelping, Miyuki pulls her hair away from the person before turning. "What?" She snaps before it registers that it was the face-painted sand ninja. "Kankuro?"

Kankuro nods, pulling his hand back toward him to rest it on his desk. "Whaddya know? I just can't get rid of you," he comments, amusement laced in his voice.

"Seriously. Where do you keep from?" Miyuki jokes.

Kankuro opens his mouth to say something only to be interrupted by chalk being tapped against the chalkboard. "Everyone, eyes front," Ibiki orders. At this command, Miyuki gives Kankuro a shrug and small smile before she turns back around so she was looking toward the front of the room. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of," he says causing Miyuki to frown. Hopefully this wouldn't take long. She was ready to get this test out of the way. "And I won't answer any questions so you better pay attention the first time around," he continues to announce.

Ibiki turns around to face the chalkboard and begins to write down something. "Alright, rule number one is this: The written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to. You all begin the test with the perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven," Ibiki explains. _Alright. That's simple enough._ Miyuki rests her chin in the palm of hand, growing bored already.

"Rule number two: Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members," Ibiki continues, causing gasps to leave everyone in the room.

A loud thud catches Miyuki's attention. Looking at the source of the thud, Miyuki sees it was the pinkette from before. The pinkette lifts her head off the table and cries, "What? Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored as a team?"

"Silence! I have my reasons, so shut up and listen," Ibiki commands. Not waiting for anymore random outbursts, Ibiki continues to say, "Rule number three: The sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprits score."

"Huh? We don't get thrown at?" Miyuki mutters, glancing at the line of sentinels beside her. _And I have the privilege of sitting in front of them. Great._

"Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored," Ibiki warns. _Oh, so will be thrown out. After five times, though. That's kind of silly._ "Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be," Ibiki adds.

Just when Miyuki thought they were going to be able to start the test, Ibiki starts talk again. "One more thing: If any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails," he announces. _Shit. Daiki better not mess this up_. Miyuki looks toward Daiki, catching his eye to cause him to give her an apologetic smile.

"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period. You have one hour in total," Ibiki says, looking up at the clock that hit 12 on cue. At this, Ibiki shouts, "Begin!"

Everyone in the room immediately turns their sheets of paper over. Miyuki goes with the simplest thing to do when taking a test and writes her name at the top before looking at the questions. As she reads the first question, her heart drops. _What the?_ _How_ do _you decipher a code?_ Deciding to skip that question, she moves onto the next question.

_'Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy C by a ninja A seated atop a tree seven meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C were positioned in points D, E, and F. Also predict the farthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrive at your answer.'_ Miyuki chuckles as she reads over the question. "Fuck me," she mutters as she shakes her leg.

Skipping the second question, she looks over the rest of question, noticing that each question was more difficult than the ones before. _They're more difficult per question. It's almost as if they want us to cheat._ Miyuki scowls, knowing that was something that she couldn't do, before glancing around the room. It didn't seem like she was only the one struggling. In fact, only a few people seemed like they knew what they were doing. Her eyes stop on the blond boy in the orange. He was punching himself in the head repeatedly. _He looks like an idiot._ Miyuki pressed her lips together, guessing that written tests were definitely not his strong point. Huffing, Miyuki looks back at her paper before resting her head in her hands.

_Okay, girl. Get your head in this. You can do this. Just remember everything you've learned._ She goes back to look at the first question. Rereading it, it clicks on her from something she worked on with Kaori. _Yes!_ She starts writing down what she believed to be the answer before she forgot what she remembered.

After finishing the first question, she moves onto the second problem, tapping her pencil on the table as she tries to remember how to do it. Finally remember how to, Miyuki writes down the answer, putting her pencil down once she finishes it. As she stretches her fingers out, Miyuki looks over at Akari, noticing that she had enabled her Byakugan.

_Why would she?_ Miyuki widens her eyes as realization washes over her. Thinking back over what Ibiki had said before the exam _"Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be."_

Miyuki smirks at this realization. _Now that makes sense._ She glances at the sentinels closest to her. _That's why they're only taking two points off each time you get caught as oppose to throwing us out. They want us to cheat._

Leaning back in her seat, Miyuki frowns. _I have no idea how I can cheat. None of my jutsu's are for the purpose of gathering info-_ Miyuki stops that thought as she glances around the room, spotting a water bottle beside one of the sentinels, the water causing her to remember a certain technique that Kaori had taught her. _Yes! That's perfect._ Miyuki glances around the room, focusing on one of the few people who were blazing through the exam. She then does a couple of hand signals, summoning water into her hand. Forming a sign with her free hand, a drop of water leaves the water in her hand before evaporating. Miyuki looks back at where the smart kid was sitting before looking up at the ceiling above him. Forming a sign, the water drop from before forms back into a drop from collecting moisture in the air. It slowly becomes bigger, gaining water from the moisture in the air. As it grows, Miyuki forms another sign, signaling the water to thin out along the ceiling. Once satisfied that the water was unnoticeable unless the lighting hit it right, Miyuki looks back down at the water in her hand. She makes another signal which makes the water thin out into a circle no bigger than a hand-held mirror. Satisfied, Miyuki whispers, "Water Parallel."

The water circle in her glows for moment before showing what the larger circle was showing from across the room, giving Miyuki a clear view of the other people's test. Using her chakra, she zooms in on the one that had answered all the questions. _Oh, I hit the jackpot with_ _him._ Miyuki grabs her pencil and starts jotting down the answers, knowing she had a set amount of time before the jutsu stopped working. After she finishes writing down the last question, Miyuki signals for the water to evaporate, ending the jutsu. Sighing in relief, Miyuki puts her pencil down and turns her paper over, not wanting to give anyone the chance to cheat off of her. Looking at the clock, she saw there was still another forty minutes before the tenth question would be revealed. _Now what do I do? Take a nap?_

Miyuki goes to rest her hand in her hand before the sound of someone jumping out of their seat caught her by surprise. Looking at the direction the sound came from, Miyuki notices it was a guy sitting behind the loud blond.

"What the- what was that for?" The boy asks nervously.

One of the sentinels answers, "Five strikes and you're out. You just failed the test."

"What? It can't be..." the boy's voice was shaky.

The sentinel points his finger at the boy. "You and you're teammates will the the room immediately," he announces. The sound of shuffling could be heard and two more boys stand up, leaving the room while trying to conceal their emotions of anger and disappointment. After that, more numbers proceeded to be called.

"Candidate number 23, fail."

"Numbers 27 and 43, fail!"

More people proceed to stand up and leave the room, one of them being someone sitting in front of Miyuki. When Miyuki hears the sound of struggle, she turns around to see a boy being dragged out by two sentinels while he screams, "It's not fair! I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!"

There was loud thud from somewhere else in the room causing Miyuki to jump slightly in her seat causing her to look at where the noise came from. A tall guy was standing with his hand on the table in front of him. "No! No way! Who says I cheated five times? Where's your proof," the boy booms. "How can you keep track of all of us? You've got the wrong guy! How do you know I wasn't just-" The boy was cut out by a sentinel slamming him against a wall, causing him cry in pain as the sentinel restrains him with his arm over the boys throat.

"Sorry, pal. We were chosen for this duty because we don't make mistakes like that. You can't even without us seeing it. We're the best and you, my friend, are history," the sentinel says, releasing the boy. "Now get out and take your teammates with you."

Miyuki stares at the scene in horror. She was glad that none of the sentinels caught her while she was using her Water Parallel technique. If they did, it could've be her against the wall. Miyuki looks away from the others in the room, not wanting any sentinel to get the wrong idea since she was already finished with her test. Placing her hands on her desk, she picks at her finger nails. _Dude, I should really start doing something to these things. They're starting to look pitiful. _Another ten minutes pass before more numbers are called.

"Number 59, you fail."

"Numbers 33 and 9, fail."

_Gee, that's the thirteenth team here to fail._

"Number 41, fail!"

"Numbers 35 and 62, fail!"

The latest one was followed by a protest, earning the kid to be kicked out by force. _You'd think they'd learn the first time someone was forced out to no argue back._ Miyuki looks around, her eye catching onto the redhead with the gourd. In his hand was an eye and before Miyuki had chance to make sure she saw that right, he already crushed in his hand, sending sand particles across the room. _So, that's what he uses._ Miyuki looks away, going to lean against her desk when someone spoke up.

"Uh, excuse me!" Miyuki recognized that voice, it belonging to the guy sitting behind her.

"What is it," a sentinel asks.

"Gotta use the can, sorry," Kankuro answers.

Miyuki could hear shuffling as the two people stand up. "We go with you to make sure you're not up to anything," she hears the sentinel say.

"That's perfectly understandable," Kankuro replies, sounding a little smug.

_Is he up to something?_ Miyuki shrugs at the thought, not caring what the guy was up to. Looking back up at the clock, she sees that there was still another five minutes until the last question was to be announced. _Just a little bit longer._ Miyuki thinks as she pulls her hair out of its hair band. She runs her fingers through her hair, removing all of the tangles. After removing the tangles, she proceeds to start braiding her hair. She was completely bored.

After the five minutes were up, Miyuki looks at the front of room to stare at Ibiki. "Alright, listen up!" Ibiki yells, grabbing everyone in the room's attention. "Here's the the tenth and final question. But before I give you the question, there are some rules that you need to be aware of," he says, creating a small pause.

The silence was broken by the creak of the door behind everyone. Everyone turns around to look at the source, including Miyuki, to see Kankuro wearing a confused expression. Miyuki could see him mutter something to himself.

"Ah made it just in time," Ibiki says as the sentinel closes the door behind Kankuro. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening," Ibiki adds. Kankuro wore a look of suspicion on his face. "Well? Take your seat," Ibiki orders. Kankuro walks stiffly back to his seat as Miyuki turns her attention back toward the front of the room.

"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully," Ibiki starts his speech up. "And try not to let them frighten you," he adds with a sinister tone. Miyuki gulps. _What kind of rules are there now?_ After some silence, Ibiki continues. "Very well then, rule number one: Each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision," he states.

_But?_ Miyuki frowns.

"Whoa," a female voice shouts from behind Miyuki. Turning around, she recognizes her as Kankuro's sister. "So what's the catch? Let's say we decide that we don't want to do it. What happens then?" She asks.

"If you chose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers of the other nine, you'll get a zero," Ibiki answers, smirking after saying that. "In other words, you fail and that means, of course, that your teammates fail as well," he adds. _There's the but._

Voices from genin erupt from around the room. They were questioning why they wouldn't take the tenth question. Obviously the better route was to go ahead and take the question. If you mess up, you could just take it the next time, right?

"Not so fast. You didn't let me finish," Ibiki says causing Miyuki to click her tongue. _Are you ever finished?_ "If you do accept the question but answer incorrectly, you will not only fail," he pauses for a second before shouting, "You will be barred from taking the Chuunin Exams ever again!"

Miyuki spots someone standing up from the corner of her eye and looks over to see the boy with the dog on his head pointing his finger at Ibiki. "Hey, that's bull man! That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? There's a lot of people here that have taken the test before," he yells, causing the small dog to bark in agreement.

Ibiki starts to chuckle but then turns it into a fit of laughter. Once he takes short breath, he replies, "I guess you're just... unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before but I am now." He then adds, "Of course, if you don't wanna take it, you don't have to."

The dog boy makes a face. "Huh?"

"If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can back again and try it next year," Ibiki says after a short pause. "Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't wanna take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go," Ibiki explains.

Miyuki shakes her leg rapidly. _Should I stay? I mean, I basically used someone else's answers to answer all of the questions. There's no guaranteed that I will pass this question. Like he said, I can always try again next time. No big deal, right?_ Miyuki glances at Daiki, seeing him biting on his nail. Feeling her looking at him, Daiki locks eyes with Miyuki and shakes his head at her. _Shit, he knows I'm questioning myself. I can't raise my hand. I'll be letting him and Akari down._

A short moment passes before a guy beside the kid in the orange slowly raises his hand and stands up. "Uh, I'm out. That's it, I'm out. I can't do it, I'm sorry," he claims dramatically.

The sentinel from his row looks up from his paper. "Number 50, fail," he announces before glancing back at his paper. He then reads out, "Number 130, number 110, that means you're out too."

"Gennai, Inaho, I'm sorry guys," the boy expresses, his hands balling up. His teammates rise from their seats with their brows furrowed and a frown line on their face. They were obviously trying to restrain their anger and their disappointment from showing. "I'm sorry," the guy apologizes once more, his whole body trembling.

Another hand rises. "That's it, I quit," a guy announces.

"Me too sir, I'm out," someone else says with their hand raised.

Three more hands rise, each person saying the same thing in various ways. The sentinels announce the numbers that have been disqualified, their voices echoing around the room. As Miyuki watches as the room begins to clear out. As she glances around, she sees that only a few teams besides the nine rookie teams, Guys teams, and the two sand teams she had talked two were still in the room. _Everyone sure is clearing out. I wonder how many more are going to stay._ Miyuki bites her bottom lip and she looks back at her shaking hands. _I really don't want to do this. I mean, so what if I'll have to wait another year to take the exam. At least there will be a different proctor with different rules._ She goes to raise her hand but stops when she notices the blond boy raise his hand in air before slamming it down on the table.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You guys aren't going to scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life," he shouts before standing up, placing both of his hands on the desk. "I'll still be hokage someday," he shouts before flopping back down onto the bench, childishly crossing his arms and huffing.

Miyuki hands stop trembling as she smirks. _This kid_. She crosses her arms over her chest as she leans back in her seat. There was no way she was leaving. If this kid, who was struggling during the whole test, could stay, then so could she.

"This decision is one that could change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit, now is your last chance," Ibiki tells everyone.

From across the room, Miyuki hears the boy in the orange say, "No way. I never go back on my word. That's the way of the ninja."

Miyuki smiles even more, feeling the tension leave the room. _Whaddya know. He's made everyones doubts disappear. You go kid._ Miyuki laughs lightly at this.

Ibiki looks over the sentinels throughout the room who all nod at him with a trace of smile on their faces and he nods back at them before looking back at the group of genin. "Well then, I admire your determination, nothing else. For those you remaining, there's only one thing left to do and that's for me to tell you," Ibiki begins to say before pausing. After a brief moment, he announces, "That you've all passed your first exam."

The room becomes completely quiet. So quiet that Miyuki could hear someone drop their pencil from across the room. The quietness was soon ruined, though.

"U-what-" A female voice starts to say from the middle of the room. Miyuki looks over to see the pinkette jumping from her seat and slamming her hands on her desk. "Hold on! What just happened? Where's the tenth question? What do you mean we passed," she demands.

Ibiki laughs as a reply. "There never was one! Not a written one, at least. Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question," he explains though the pinkette still wore a confused expression. Miyuki couldn't blame her. She didn't understand it either. Were the other nine questions just a waste of time? Damn, she wasted a lot of time on this for nothing.

"Wait a second," another voice calls from behind Miyuki, a voice she recognized as Kankuro's sisters. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time? Is that what you're saying," she asks, sounding quite angry. _Thank you for asking what I just thinking._ Miyuki fiddles with her braid.

"No, no, not at all. Quite the opposite. The first nine question had an important overwriting purpose: to test your ability to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances," Ibiki answers.

"Oh, well that clears up everything." The girl's voice had a slight bit of sarcasm laced with it.

Ibiki looks away from the girl and looks back at everyone else in the class. "Let me explain, you see my objective was to test you not only as individuals, but as a team and how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored as a team basis so you'd know that everything you'd do or failed to do would directly affect your teammates. I wanted to see how you handled that pressure," Ibiki explains.

_How pleasant._ Miyuki clicks her tongue, knowing that she showed an awful way of caring about her teammates since she was about to quit.

"The first nine question on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any genin to be expected to solve. I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion. That you'd have to cheat to had any chance of passing. The fact is, the test was designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it." Miyuki presses her lips into a thin line. _I flipping knew it. That was the only way to get the answers._ "Of course, it would have done you little good unless you had someone to cheat from so I disguised two chuunin, who already knew the answers, and had them sit with you," Ibiki says. Two boys raise their hands, one of them sitting in front of the outspoken blond. At realizing this, the boy clutches onto his head.

_He really needs to chill._ Miyuki huffs before a small smile appears on her face. She actually kind of enjoyed his reactions. Though other kids in the room thought his behavior was strange since they were questioning his problem. At their words, the boy laughs before leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head. "He he he, oh come on! I wasn't fooled for a second! You'd have to be a complete doofus not to see it! Isn't that right, Hinata?" He turns to the girl sitting beside him.

"Bull. You were totally freaking out," Miyuki mutters.

"Those who were caught at it failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily," Ibiki continues as he reaches his hands up to his head and unwraps the headband, revealing a scarred and punctured head. Miyuki's heart drops for a second as she covers her mouth with her hand, muttering a curse word into it. "Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine whether the missions will be a failure or a success. There will be times where you will have to risk your life to get it," he tells everyone and begins to wrap his headband again.

"Of course you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gather from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind: disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades, or the loss of a village. That's why I put in the position where had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat, in order to survive, and that's why those who weren't good at it were weeded out, leaving the rest of you," Ibiki says.

"_Okay_, but I'm still not getting what the tenth question thing is all about," Kankuro sister speaks up again. _Girl, I feel you on that._

Ibiki looks at her, appearing slightly surprised. "You're not? The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam," he replies. "Surely you see that."

"Not really," Miyuki speaks up, causing Ibiki to look in her direction.

"Uh, sure, but explain it anyway," the pinkette says after Miyuki speaks, leading to Ibiki looking at her.

Ibiki stuffs his hands back into his coat pockets. "As I said before, the goal was to test you not only as individuals but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two difficult choices." He raises two fingers. "Both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant that both you and your teammates will be failed, or you could try and answer it, knowing if you got it wrong, you would lose your chance of ever being chuunin. It was a no-win situation, but just the sort chuunin have to face every day," he explains and walks to a different spot in the front of the room.

"For example, let me give a hypothetical mission: to steal a document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you reason to believe that the enemy expects you, that you might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Now do you have the option to taking a pass on this insane? Of saying my comrades and I would rather live to fight another day? Can you choose to avoid danger?" Ibiki pauses before continuing. "No," he answers.

"There will be many missions that will seem almost suicidal if you think about it, but you do not think about it. You think only of the goal, and achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a chuunin squad leader. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those who determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor will never be able to call themselves chuunin; at least as long as I'm here," Ibiki says.

"As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I've put to you. You have earned the right to continue onto the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the Chuunin Selection Exam completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck," Ibiki finishes.

"All right!" The blond boy shouts, standing up from his seat and waving his arms around. "We did it! That's one down! Yeah, yeah! Woo-hoo, yeah," he exclaims while doing his silly dance.

Suddenly, a large object crashes through the window near the front of the class. Miyuki gasps as a person twirl around as they plant kunai knives onto what seemed like a giant banner corners.

"Is this part of the test?" The blond boy sputters as the person straightens themselves, revealing themselves to be a woman. With them standing still, Miyuki was able to read the banner behind her.

Second examiner, Anko Mitarashi, is here

"Heads up, boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating," Anko begins loudly, stepping up. "I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi," she introduces herself with an outstretched arm, displaying the banner behind her. "You ready for the second test?" Anko asks. "Good," she shouts, not really pausing. "Let's go! Follow me," she exclaims, pumping her fist into the air.

_What is with this woman?_ Miyuki purses her lips as she scratches her cheek.

Ibiki's head pops out from behind the banner. "You're early. Again," he sates.

Anko blushes, now embarrassed, and flinches back into a casual posture. Once she becomes calmer, she scans the classroom. "How many are there," she asks. She then frowns, looking at Ibiki, and tilts her head. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy! You must be getting soft," she claims.

Ibiki wasn't fazed by this. "Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year," he points out.

Anko blinks before looking back at the class. "Hmm, they sure don't look it," she says as she briefly looks around before her lips twist into a smirk. "Trust me, before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated," she says in a low voice. "Heh, this is gonna be fun." Miyuki manages to make her mumble. "Alright, you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are gonna be different first thing in the morning." _Maggots? The hell?_ "I'll let your squad leaders know where to meet me," she tells everyone.

"Dismissed," she finishes in a sinister voice. _Gesh, isn't she lovely?_

There was some murmuring and a few spouts of cheering as everyone stands up. Miyuki stretches after she gets out of her seat. "Man, I was getting stiff sitting in the same spot for so long," she says aloud. A small chuckle averts her attention toward the person standing to her left. Miyuki clicks her tongue in irritation. "Got something to say, _Kitten_," Miyuki teases, placing her hands on hips and tilting her chin up to make herself appear taller.

Kankuro shoots her glare. "What did you call me?" He growls.

_Ah. Looks like I struck a nerve._ "You heard me the first time," Miyuki remarks, a smirk evident on her face.

Kankuro opens his mouth to say something in return only to be interrupted by someone calling his name. Turning around, Kankuro sees his teammates waiting for him at the door. "Let's go," the girl says. Kankuro looks back at Miyuki causing her to raise a brow and shrug. Kankuro clicks his tongue before turning on his heel and walking toward the exit, the sentinel from before following him.

Miyuki raises another brow at this before shrugging it off. Looking around the room, she spots the loud blond standing with his teammates. He was smiling at them widely, obviously happy that they had passed the exam. Miyuki takes this opportunity to walk over to the group. Once she had reached them, she raises her hand in a greeting gesture.

"Hey, blondie," she calls, gaining the attention of the boy.

He looks at her, his lips pressed together as he tries to figure out who she was. When he realizes that he doesn't know her, he asks, "Who are you?"

Miyuki stops walking and shoots him a smile. "I was actually going to ask you the same question," she laughs. "Miyuki Himura," she introduces herself.

The boy blinks for a moment before a goofy smile breaks across his face. "You wanna know who I am," he asks, sounding surprise over the fact. Glancing at his teammates, Miyuki could tell by their faces that this wasn't something that happened often.

Miyuki nods. "Well, duh."

The boys laughs as he crosses his arms behind his head, turning his body to face her more. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he exclaims.

"Oh," Miyuki says, her eyebrow raised. "Nice to meet you, Naruto." She holds her hand out.

Naruto looks at her hand before lowering one of his. He takes her hand, shaking it a little too eagerly. "Nice to meet you, too, Miyuki." He then stops shaking her hand, releasing it as his face grows serious. "Though can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Miyuki shrugs.

"Why did you want to know who I was? Wouldn't you prefer to know who _he_ is?" Naruto looks back at Sasuke, shooting him glare.

Miyuki laughs, noticing the obvious rivalry between the two. "Well, I thought you were interesting. You know, you made a lot of outburst during this whole thing. It was quite amusing," Miyuki explains. Miyuki looks toward the doors, noticing her teammates waiting for her. "Oh, I gotta go. My teammates are waiting for me." She waves at the group of genin before jogging off to her team. Needless to say, she was looking forward to the next part of the exam.


End file.
